Senate Democrats recently ramped up their efforts to force businesses to pay managerial employees overtime. The reform is only the latest attempt by Democrats to tamper with — and ultimately ruin — our economy through wage and price controls.

Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, for instance, support a dramatic hike in the federal minimum wage, as well as Medicare overhauls that amount to government price controls on drugs. All of these proposals mistakenly assume that the federal government knows better than businesses and consumers what goods and labor are worth.

Texans in particular should be wary of this approach to public policy. Our state's lawmakers have long understood the dangers of government overreach, and their restraint has helped the Lone Star State economy thrive. These latest attempts at federal intervention are not only wrongheaded, they pose a serious threat to Texas' continued prosperity.

Clinton has promised to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $12. Sanders goes even further, pushing for $15.

What both candidates fail to acknowledge is that wages aren't arbitrary numbers that can be raised without consequence.

A company simply can't afford to pay workers more than the value of their work. And so, under Sanders' proposal, any position that generates less than $15 per hour in value for a company would likely be eliminated, leading to more unemployment. One should expect a similar outcome from the proposal for extending overtime pay.

To see this link between wage mandates and joblessness, just look at the European Union. According to a 2014 analysis by John Hopkins University economist Steve H. Hanke, the average unemployment rate for the 21 European Union countries with minimum wages was 11.8 percent. For the seven countries without a minimum wage, average unemployment was only 7.9 percent.

Here in the United States, minimum wage laws harm low-skilled workers the most, particularly teenagers. In fact, the last time the federal minimum wage went up, unemployment amongTexas teenagers jumped from 16.7 percent to 22.3 percent.

Price control schemes are yet another instance of misguided, destructive government intervention. Nevertheless, both Democratic presidential candidates, as well as the president, support price controls in Medicare's Part D prescription drug benefit.

Though it's part of our nation's bloated entitlement state, Part D has fared better than other aspects of Medicare by channeling market forces.

The program allows private insurers to compete against one another to offer drug-coverage plans to seniors. To keep premiums down — and thus, to win customers — insurance providers must negotiate with drug companies for better prices on drugs.

Politicians like Clinton and Sanders believe federal bureaucrats could obtain lower prices than the private insurance negotiators who haggle with drug makers for a living. Under the Democrats' proposals, government officials would negotiate drug prices for all Medicare plans, thus destroying the competitive structure that has kept costs down.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, if bureaucrats negotiate on behalf of all plans, they'd use "the threat of not allowing [a] drug to be prescribed or putting limitations on its being prescribed" as a "negotiating lever."

In other words, government wouldn't achieve better prices than private insurers unless it simply refuses to cover certain medicines across all plans. If that happens, Medicare beneficiaries would lose access to needed treatments.

Giving federal officials more power to set prices, control wages, and otherwise interfere with the economy is no way to increase prosperity or extend access to goods and services.

Texans understand this truth more than most. Among other things, our state lacks both an individual and a corporate income tax and is known for its minimalist approach to regulation. This aversion to needless government intervention has been central to our economic success.

Between 2007 and 2014, more jobs were created in Texas than in all other states combined. Our state economy has been growing at rate that's more than double the national average.

This is the kind of sustained prosperity that only private enterprise and limited government can generate. Unfortunately, federal policymakers remain convinced that a government decree is all one needs to raise wages and lower prices.

Michelle Ray is a publishing editor at the Independent Journal-Review and host of "In Deep with Michelle Ray" on FTR Radio. Reach her at @GaltsGirl